It's One Day
by michaela88
Summary: How a simple voice message can change your life. Post 4x20. One shot.


A.N: This is my first ever TVD story, so please be nice. I just watched 4x20 and I was overwhelmed by the emotion in Klaus's phone call that I just had to get it out. It actually makes me really sad, because I think that 4x20 marks the end of this wonderful ship of ours. So I've written this, in a silent prayer that Plec will decide to have Caroline moved to The Original. (This will never happen, and by the finale we will have to endure Tayler's return. I shit you not, I will cry. ) Anyway! That's it from me – I hope you enjoy! I'm gonna go die with feels.

Disclaimer – I own nothing. We all know how it would look if I owned them.

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"_Maybe one day you'll let me…"_

Click. The line goes silent. Caroline sets the phone down on her vanity. A soft smile graces her lips. A smile of acceptance. It has been six weeks since she got this voice message, and by now she had lost count of how many times she had listened to it. She had also giving up on denying the joy his voice brought to her. These past few weeks were hard without him. She never knew how much she actually depended on him. How much they all did. She never gave proper consideration to how many times she would run to him, blazing up a shitstorm of accusations, and how he would listen to her every word, let her blow up, then softly speak to her, with a tenderness unparalleled, and send her off feeling like there will be a better tomorrow. She also never gave proper credit to how much he actually helps their little Scooby Gang. He was like a nuclear detergent or something. Without him, they were gravely ill informed, unprepared and defiantly not safe, or at least not _as_ safe. Klaus was never a hero, but he stopped being the villain long ago.

Caroline looks at her reflection in the mirror. Her dark blue gown without a single wrinkle on it, the cap sits perfectly on her head. Graduation day. She smoothest out the fabric of the gown, feeling it under her fingers. Such a shame this perfection wouldn't last. It is Mystic Falls, and it is a big day. Chaos is bound to happen. People were going to lose their lives today. She knows it. It somehow sickens her that she is so relaxed about it. Life should not be like this.

"Care! Sweetie! We're going to be late! Come on, hurry!" she hears her mother call her. Caroline takes one last look in the mirror and nods to herself. She grabs her phone and holds it as tightly as she can without breaking it. As she steps out of her room she sees the backpack in the back of her open closet, and a smile finds it's self on her lips once more.

As she walks down stairs flashes blind her. "Mom!" she whines "You're going to blind me!" she says.

"Oh hush!" Liz says as she snaps more shots "You're a vampire, you don't get blind" she says with a smile. Caroline chuckles.

"Oh my lord" Liz says then, her eyes filling up with tears "My baby is finishing high school today!" she smiles through her tears.

"Mommy! Stop! You're gonna make me cry" Caroline says as her mom envelopes her in a tight hug.

"I'm so proud of you Caroline. And your dad would have been too" she whispers into her daughter's blond locks.

"Oh mom!" Caroline cries, holding on to her even tighter. "I love you so much" she says barely over a whisper.

"Okay okay!" Liz says, "The make up is all but ruined so before we do more damage – let's go!" she says and pushes her vampire daughter out the door.

Arriving at the ceremony, Caroline almost forgets that shit is about to hit the fan. Everyone is there. All her friends, even Elena. Caroline doesn't know what it was exactly that flipped Elena back from the dark side, but she is so happy it did. Even if she's with Damon now. It has been quiet the shock for her, really. She was so sure that Stefan was Elena's epic love, but she was dead wrong. It really was Damon. As soon as the flips switched, her best friend fell into complete disarray and only Damon managed to get to her. Once, Caroline couldn't understand how Elena could love such a man. Now, she never felt closer to her best friend. Looking over, she saw the couple in question, they weren't doing anything special, they weren't even touching, but you could not avoid feeling their love. It was like they were both floating, not even walking. And that was saying something, because aside of the original family, never had Caroline seen such a personified manifestation of pure rage like Damon is. But next to Elena? Nothing. It's not that she changed him; it's the fact that she didn't need him to, that tamed his soul.

The only thing that saddens her about this union is that Stefan is truly gone. He left as soon as he was sure the girl he once loved was back, and had indeed fallen out of love with him. It was a hard truth, but it soothed his mind, and he left peacefully. Caroline and Stefan still spoke everyday. He still wouldn't tell her where he was, but she knew that as soon as he wanted to be found – she'll know, and if she needed his help – he would show, so she never pressures him about it. Damon hurt when his brother left. He still hurts. Caroline has a feeling that after tonight, Damon will take Elena and they'll start their search for him. She smiles. When they'll find Stefan, and they will, he will be so happy.

Lost in thoughts, Caroline almost misses the headmaster calling all the graduates. She kisses her mom, and goes to join her friends. They are all tight smiles and worried. They all know hell is bound to break loose.

They're not wrong. Moments after the ceremony is over, the "other side" breaks free, Silas in the head. It's on.

The fight is long; there are too many dead. But somehow, Bonnie wins this one. The details are not important to her, for Caroline has seen enough blood and tears; the memories all get molded together anyway. There is so much more to do now. It's like when ever they "win" they somehow also lose and have to face another endless rounds of pain and misery.

Caroline excuses herself from the Boarding House, or the war room, if you would like. She wants to hug everyone, but she knows that that will call attention on something she doesn't need it on.

"Oh shoot!" she says " I forgot something in your room," she says looking at Elena.

Elena smiles at her from her place between Damon's arms "Go get it." She says.

"Me casa, su casa" she smiles. As she blurs upstairs she hears Damon call after her "It's me casa! And there is no su here!" Then she hears a smack, which she pretty sure hit the side of his face. Caroline smiles softly as she enters Damon's room. They have had quiet the run, but in the end, Damon was one of the only people she would not only trust her life with, but also give her life for. She knows he will be the only one that will understand. Caroline pins a long letter into his favorite shirt. Oh how he will hate her for this. She smiles victoriously. She blurs back down.

"I hope you didn't do any damage to my things, Blondie" Damon says sipping his bourbon. Caroline scowls at him, "Very funny" she says and he gives her that dazzling smile of his. There really is no denying – he is a beautiful creature.

"Okay, I have to go… I really want to shower and sleep!" she lies with a smile. Elena cracks her neck "You're right. We've earned a day off." She says with sad eyes. Too many people were lost this time.

"Yeah…" Caroline mumbles "So… umm… bye guys." She says lamely and walks out the door. "Bye!" She heard Elena call after her.

By the time Caroline gets home, her mom is sleeping. Caroline goes to her room, and lays the ripped and dirty dark blue gown on her bad. This was a graduation day extravaganza worthy of Mystic Falls she thinks gloomily. Caroline strips of her clothes and goes to shower. She savors at the heat crushing down on her aching body. She looks at the wounds that had already healed. Boy, was being a vampire a good thing. After a far too long of a shower she steps out, towels herself and goes to her closet to get dressed. Before she does that, she takes the backpack out, and sets it next to her bad. Caroline picks out two outfits. One to drive in, and one to change into once she gets to her destination. Opening the drawer on her nightstand, she takes out a simple box. Inside that box, she finds a diamond bracelet. She smiles as she puts it on.

She flings her backpack on one shoulder, and steps out of her room, leaving the door open. She pops her head into her mom's bedroom and stands there for a moment, watching her sleep. Then she goes to her, leaves a letter on the nightstand, and kisses her mother.

"Please don't be mad" she whispers into the night, and leaves the room. Walking outside, Caroline locks the front door of her house, something that somehow rarely happens in Mystic Falls, and slips the key into a secret compartment in the backpack. As her car roars into life, Caroline glances one more time at the house she is leaving behind, and smiles. This is the right choice. And off she goes into the night.

It had been a long ride, well over 12 hours, but she has finally made it. The Big Easy. New Orleans. The French Quarter, to be exact. Caroline turned off the engine, and looked on at the house in front of her. A mansion, not that she expected any less from him. He did have a really tacky flare about him sometimes. Caroline looked to her back seat, to the outfit she had prepared. It was a simple shirt and jeans and shoes, really, nothing someone would ever consider special, but for her it was. In this outfit he saved her life, yet again. But in this outfit, she called him out on his love for her, and he didn't deny it. This was the moment things shifted in her in a way that she could no longer control. Once she knew how he felt, _that_ he felt, she was doomed. There was no saving her from falling for him. But this time – she didn't want saving. Making sure no one was watching her, she changed in her car.

Once she was dressed, she was about to pull on the handle and walk out, but she froze. Caroline put her hands back on the wheel and started tapping her fingers on it. Although she didn't need air, she rolled down the windows, letting the cold breeze in, trying to calm herself.

What if he doesn't want her here?

What if he had someone else?

What if this place changed him and he is no longer the vampire she fell for?

Questions started flying in her head. Suddenly this looked like a really _really_ bad choice.

"What did you do, Caroline?!" she asks herself out loud.

Suddenly something flashed to her left, her phone. A text message. With trembling hands she takes it and looks at the screen.

"Oh god!" she scowls at the phone. It's an advertisement text. Then, like instinct, Caroline calls her voice mail.

"You have one heard message." The machine says.

Caroline presses 1.

Klaus's voice fills her ears, and she closes her eyes to that soft sound. Before the message is over, Caroline bolts out of the car, and stands at the door.

She knocks and waits. A moment later, the door opens. Had she a beating heart she was sure it would burst out of her rib cage.

Some guy she doesn't know is standing behind the open door "Yes?" he says.

"I'm looking for Klaus," she says in a sure tone.

The guy looks her up and down disapprovingly "And you are?" he asks.

"Non of your business. Just let me in, or let him know I'm here," she says in that Miss Mystic Falls voice of hers.

"You know what?" says the guy, "I really don't think I will. Klaus isn't a fan of strangers." He says and starts closing the door.

Before she has a chance to fight a voice comes from behind the guy "Let her in".

It's a familiar, kind voice. Caroline walks into the house, a victorious smile on her face. As her eyes settle on Elijah, her smile grows nicer and shyer.

"Elijah" she says timidly "I didn't know you were here".

The original smiles fondly at her "I could say the same for you miss Forbs." He looks at the guy at the door "Leave us. And tell no one nothing on this. Or I will rip out your heart". Caroline shudders at this. Elijah is the greatest of gentlemen, but crossing him is something she finds utterly dreadful.

Looking back at her, his features soften "Come," he says, pointing at big living room "Make yourself comfortable, you've had a long ride."

Caroline smiles and nods as she walks further into the house, sitting on one of the couches.

"Blood?" Elijah offers.

Caroline shakes her head no, "But a drink would be nice" she adds, smiling.

Elijah's face brightens as he smiles and fixes her a drink. He likes his vampire. She has a kind and genuine soul. And most importantly, she brings out something in his lost brother he had not seen in over a thousand years.

Handing her the drink, Elijah sits next to Caroline, and a comfortable silence fills the air.

"Aren't you going to ask me anything?" she asks him, taking another sip of his drink. Damon would love this drink. She has to remember to send him a bottle. Elijah smiles again "No, " he says simply "I'll leave that to my brother. Since it is him you came to see." Caroline nods.

Finally, Caroline can't take it anymore and she tells Elijah everything. Everything that had happened in the past six weeks of their departure. Elijah listens carefully, asks questions when they are needed, but mostly, he gives Caroline a chance to let it all out, before facing his brother.

"And then I locked the door, got in my car, drove for 16 hours, no stopping mind you, and now – here I am." Caroline finishes her speech and her drink at the same time.

Elijah nods "It's has been a rough time for you all." He says darkly "A time perhaps, that has drove some of you to make haste decisions." He finishes.

Caroline knows what he means by that. He is worried she is acting out, using his brother only to walk away later.

"This isn't a game for me, Elijah." She says. "I'm here for him." It's the first time she had ever said that out loud. Now that it's out in the open, there is no taking it back. Elijah was about to say something when the front door opened and in came Klaus, ranting about something or the other.

"I swear to you brother, if that stupid witch…" Klaus stops mid sentence as he walks in to the leaving room, seeing who is there.

Caroline springs for the couch, looking as nerves as ever, and maybe even a little afraid. Klaus looks as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes are wide in shock, his lips parted, and frozen in his mid rant.

Elijah smiles softly "I'll leave you two alone" he says and departs, not before leaving two tumblers full of bourbon for them.

Minutes pass, maybe more, maybe less, they don't know. Neither of then even seemed to blink, afraid that if they do, the other would disappear.

"Caroline?" her name escapes his lips in the softest of ways, and before she even knows what she's doing she is blurring to him, attacking his lips with hers.

They've never kissed. Ever. She didn't want their first kiss to look like this. She wanted it to be the most romantic of kisses, but seeing him there, after so long, looking at her the way he did, _looking _the way he looks, she just couldn't control it. His hands hold her tight and flush against him, probably to the point of pain, but never, in his eternal life will he inflict actual pain on her. Her own hands, cup his face, and then move to his hair and it's there that she stays. Her mouth covers his with so much power, hunger, longing. She bites his lower lip and he growls as he parts his lips to allow her what she wants. And their tongues meet and dance in perfect sync. Caroline moans into him and he holds her even tighter. Suddenly Caroline pushes herself from him, with a horrid expression on her face, and before he can blink, she is on the other side of the room, her hand covering her mouth. There is no masking the pain that flashes in his eyes. Never, ever, does she want to see the look again.

"I'm so sorry!" she says, eyes wide. "I don't know what came over me. This isn't how this was supposed to happen." She admits.

Klaus's features darken "Why have you come?" he asks. Caroline looks at him confused.

"Isn't it obvious?" she says. Klaus gives her one of the coldest looks she had even seen of him. It was like a being stabbed with a hot poker. She actually takes a step back, as if he slapped her. "You." Is all she says.

"Me what?" he asks, his voice low.

She doesn't know what to say. How to make his see. Suddenly, it hit her, and she smiles at him.

"It's one day." She says. Klaus genuinely looks confused. Caroline smiles and takes out het phone. She fumbles with it a moment and then looks up at him. Locking eyes with his as his voice fills the air.

"_I'm standing in one of my favorite places in the world surrounded by food, music, art, culture and all I could think about is how much I want to show it to you. Maybe one day you'll let me._"

When the line goes dead again, Caroline has tears in her eyes. She sets the phone down "I've listened to this message everyday. Several times. So many times I have long lost count. And for the first week I hated you." She says, sniffling "I hated you for leaving. And then it hit me. I hated you for leaving _me_. And boy let me tell you, coming to terms with that was a bitch." She smiled through tears "And it took a lot of getting used to. But eventually the dust settled around that doozy of a realization. But I was still left with a shit load of hell to take care of at home. But I knew, I knew, that as soon as graduation was done, I'm coming for you. And here I am" she says, pointing at herself "I'm here. For you."

Klaus stays silent. Looking at her, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. It doesn't, but he doesn't move. Or speak, or anything. Caroline feels like her heart is been ripped out. She thought that when she'll come to him, he would take her with open arms, buy clearly, this isn't the case.

"I'm sorry," she says. "This was clearly a mistake. I'll be out of your way. Goodbye" she says, and sets to the door.

By the time she's at her car, tears are freely running down her face. As she reaches for the handle, his voice comes from behind her "Say it again." Is all he says.

She turns to him, not bothering to hide the tears. It breaks him to see her cry because of him, but this need to happen his way. "Say what?" she asks.

"Say it again, why you've come here. Say it again" he says. Looking closely at him, Caroline sees it. He is begging her, in his way, to make him believe her.

She stands straight "I'm here for you, Klaus" she says, looking him dead in the eyes. "I left everything I knew back there, and I came here for you. I came here, because I love you." It's the first time she ever says that, and at the words fall from her lips, she doesn't know how she even held them in for so long.

His eyes widen with surprise, and fear. "What?" he mumbles. His eyes glisten with tears.

Caroline wants to hold him. Kiss him. But she stays put, she knows that this has to be done in his way, or he will never believe her. And she really _really_ doesn't want to spend any time away from him.

"I, Caroline Forbs, love you. Nicklaus. More then I ever though possible. And I'm here, in this seriously filthy place, for you. And I…"

Before she has a chance to say anything else, Klaus has her pinned her car. His lips just barely touching hers. "Again" he pleads. Caroline smiles. "I love you" she says.

"Again…"

"I love you."

"Caroline Forbs, what have you done to me?" he asks her, but before she answers, his lips finally touch hers in the sweetest of kisses. This is the first kiss she wanted. His lips are soft against hers as he takes his time with her. One of his hands holds the nape of her neck, the other is at her waist, keeping her pinned to him. Her hands travel to his chest, taking handfuls of his shirt. They move in a slow, united pace. Tongues tasting each other, bodies molding into one.

In between kisses Caroline hears him, "I love you," he whispers to her lips.

She barely parts from him and whispers back "Again."

Caroline feels Klaus smiling before he breaks their kiss. He moves back just so she can see him. His blue eyes are full of so many emotions she fears she might drown, but at the same time, she yearns to do just that.

Klaus gently takes her face in both his hands, his thumb caressing circles on her cheek, "I love you." He breathes out. It is so raw; it brings tears to her eyes. As they spill from her eyes, he wipes then with his thumbs. Caroline goes in for another kiss, already missing the warmth of him. But Klaus pulls back.

"Let's get you settled." He says, lacing their fingers together and walking her back into the house.

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Hope you liked! For every review an angel gets a cookie! 8)


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